While campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, President Barack Obama famously remarked on “bitter” blue-collar Pennsylvanians who “cling to guns or religion.”

Now Obama, in the wake of the mass murder of schoolchildren at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut a month ago, is exploring tighter gun restrictions. Gun control proponents already have introduced bills in the new Congress.

One generally conservative group, evangelical pastors largely agree (73 percent) that more regulation is needed, according to the December Evangelical Leaders Survey by the National Association of Evangelicals.

“The evangelical leaders who responded to the NAE survey support the Second Amendment right to bear arms, but also want our laws to prevent the slaughter of children,” said NAE president Leith Anderson.

Public support for tighter gun laws has grown since the Newtown shooting, with 58 percent backing tougher restrictions, according to a recent USA Today/Gallup poll. That’s up from 43 percent in October 2011.

“Most of my experience with guns has been as a hunter in the great Wisconsin outdoors,” said Bill Lenz, senior pastor of Christ the Rock Community Church. “I do not believe that guns are the heart of the problem, but there should be strong regulations on who can bear arms. The easy access to guns has undoubtedly contributed to horrible tragedies.”

There are many approaches to take, Lenz said, and gun control is one of them.

The NAE reports that the 27 percent of evangelical leaders who don’t supported tighter controls said there are better solutions to the problem of gun violence — better enforcement of existing gun laws, reform of the mental health system, regulation of media violence and “spiritual renewal.”

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